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Friday, August 31, 2007

Hump Day Hmm for Weds, Sept 5: Values

In the event that you do not dedicate your days to returning to read carefully each and every comment made to my posts (and really, if you did? your life would be the richer for it) you might have missed how---in the Senators are Total Homophobes post aka "Is outrage over sexual propositioning ethics and morals, or simply prudery?"---Gwen oh-so-unintentionally-and-subtly suggested next week's Hump Day Hmm Topic:

Julie, you bring up a great point about values ("deeper, wider, more serious problems"), and one I've been thinking of writing about. But why not just do it here? lol.

I remember after the last presidential election, there was talk about how people made their choices based on "values" and there was scattered applause for the fact that "values" still mattered in this country. The subtext was that people were voting against legalizing gay marriage, since Rove had pushed that agenda so hard in the last days of the campaign. That really pissed me off, because I, too, voted based on values--the value of a sustainable environment, the value of not bombing the shit out of innocent people, the value of finding ways to help the desperate instead of blaming them for their desperation. The idea that these don't count as "values" to be lauded is ridiculous! How can we really be so simple as to believe that values applies only to sexual morality? It's one of the tenets of the far Christian right, this focus on sexuality to the exclusion of all else, and I know this, having grown up in that culture where losing your virginity was the WORST thing you could do.

It's maddening, really, and I've had more than enough with the prurient interest we take in something so monumentally unimportant.

I said:

Gwen, by all means...do it here. :)

I agree. Values are relative.

And let's not confuse values, morals and ethics, especially the subjective.

Oooh babe, I think you just suggested next week's hump day topic.

Let's talk about this fast and loose use of the word "values" that has somehow become the catchphrase conservative political candidates bandy about.

Sociology. the ideals, customs, institutions, etc., of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard. These values may be positive, as cleanliness, freedom, or education, or negative, as cruelty, crime, or blasphemy.

Ethics. any object or quality desirable as a means or as an end in itself.

When politicians and most people these days use the word "values" they mean a specific set of conservative values.

So let's discuss that...what is a value? What is valuable? What are ethics, morals and values?

Do we have in our society a cohesive concept of ideals and customs towards things such as in the dictionary definition?

Do people suffer internal about what is expected versus personal values? Do we feel too apologetic about our values if they don't align with the vocal majority/minority values?

You write like I think and fail to write myself. Thank you for putting my thoughts in black and white.I live in Idaho the state in which we are having a current ethics dilemma. Or so they say. It has been interesting to watch the media scrutinize the Craig situation.

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